Allen Community College’s adult education program is coming to an unexpected halt due to a cut in state funding. How it started Plans for future
Jon Marshall, vice president of academic affairs at ACC, said though the program has served its last group of students, he has hopes of resurrecting it.
Two years ago the Kansas Board of Regents set its sights on seeing 60 percent of Kansans attaining a higher education certificate or degree by 2020, Marshall said. It also wanted to see the number of General Educational Development recipients greatly increase. Data from the 2010 U.S. Census showed the Regents that the number of people without a high school diploma was growing in Allen County.
As part of an effort to raise the diploma-in-hand ratio, the Board set a goal for the state’s community colleges to increase the number of GED graduates, or risk losing their funding.
Allen’s goal was set at 80 students last year, an increase of more than 20 students over the past several years. Allen missed the mark, serving a little more than 50 students. Now the school won’t be able to serve any students.
Adult education is a program funded by the state with the college contributing a small match. In previous years Allen submitted a grant every other year, but for the last two years the grant has not been funded. Marshall plans to apply for the grant funding again in the spring.
But even if Allen had met the 80-student mark, the goal for the next year would increase to 150 people. Marshall said the experience has been exasperating.
“Believe me we tried,” Marshall said. “There are a lot of factors to this program. Folks need to be served when they are ready to be served. They need a motivating factor to want to obtain a higher education.”
Also staff was cut from two and half down to one person working 20 hours a week, which makes it difficult to teach 60-plus students.
“I don’t look at it as it ending, but I look at it as a restructuring period,” Marshall said. “We will work together to find a solution.”
About 10 years ago Allen’s adult education program was all site-based on the Iola and Burlingame campuses. Allen also served about 10 to 12 students in Yates Center. The program prepped students for the GED exam among other life skills such as computer literacy. The GED exam was administered on site as well.
For years there were approximately two full-time employees, a director and full-time teacher, and one part-time instructor. During its highest point the program served 100 but it slowly leveled out to approximately 60.
“This was around the time people were facing economic troubles and wanted to earn their GED and advance their education,” Marshall said.
Around 2010 credit recovery programs began to grow in surrounding high schools. School districts more purposefully would allow students to gain credits to earn their high school diploma instead of a GED.
“This was also the rise of the Humboldt virtual school which is a wonderful, wonderful thing,” Marshall added.
Humboldt’s virtual program is an accredited curriculum that meets state standards for grades six through 12 and students can receive a high school diploma upon completion. Iola’s school district also serves students by giving adults the opportunity to go back to school to earn their Iola High School Diploma at Crossroads Learning Center.
Out of the 26 two-year schools in Kansas, 16 offer an adult education program.
If people call Allen to participate in the adult education program the college will refer them to the closest program to the potential student’s home, but Marshall hopes this is only temporary.
“Hopefully in a year or two we could join some other colleges and get a program going together,” he said.
Marshall serves as president of a group of college academic administrators. He continues to meet with academic advisors at other colleges to find a solution at keeping an adult education program alive.
Other colleges with adult programs are Butler Community College in El Dorado, Johnson County Community College in the Kansas City area, and Neosho Community College has a consortium with classes in Parsons and Independence.
He envisions working in a consortium with either neighboring schools or schools in the geographic area to come together, save on administrative costs and revive the adult education program for not just Allen but other schools as well.
CARDS STACKED AGAINST ADULT ED
